Learning English becoming an obsession for young Italians

Learning English has become an obsession for Italians. No
matter the crisis, parents are so worried for their children’s future that
whoever can afford it send their sons or daughters to study abroad.

The Minister of Education Stefania Giannini has recently
announced new measures to improve Italians’ language skills. The main novelty
has been the introduction of CLIL, Content and Language Integrated Learning,
introduced in other European countries from the 90’s. One subject will be now
taught in English even from elementary school. Scientific subjects seem the
most suitable for the new teaching method but at high school, also Humanistic
subjects, such as history of art and Philosophy might be taught in English.

From next year the government will reorganise the
recruiting process taking into account teacher’s language skills. To face the
current linguistic and cultural diversity, the new plan foresees also the
teaching of the Italian language for children who are not Italian native
speakers.

The risk at stake, while teaching a subject in English, is
to impoverish the quality of the contents taught to adequate them to the teachers
and students’ poor vocabulary. The impact on the students’ Italian language
skills could be another problem. The risk might occur that children could know
the specific language of a subject in English but not in Italian. Having a good
knowledge of one’s native language is already a compelling task. Many Italian
students can’t properly express themselves in good Italian.

So, the new generation of Italians will speak more
English, but for what purpose? To leave the country as soon as a better
opportunity arises? Work in a multinational company? How many Italian companies
really deal with foreign markets? Will this really boost Italian economy?

Moreover, Italian students are already performing badly
in the scientific area and studying them in English might make things even
worse, because understanding the subjects might be more difficult and the
teacher might have less confidence while teaching in another language.

Furthermore, will speaking English be enough to compete internationally?
Definitely not, if the main problems of the country are still corruption and
lack of opportunities for young people.